The Legacy of Karl Drerup

“Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature.” – Goldsworthy

Richard Louv stresses the importance of unstructured play, which being in nature can provide. “Some kids don’t want to be organized all the time; they want to see where a stream of water takes them.” I would argue that adults are no different—creativity requires time for the mind to wander and explore—and Goldsworthy does that in the process of his work. He never knows what he will create on a given day—he goes walking and wandering and responds to the materials and places he encounters. (See Goldsworthy’s full-length motion picture “Rivers and Tides.”)